COMPARISON OF THE NOVELS ‘MARTIN EDEN’ AND “BLUE AND BLACK’

Novel, which is one of the long narrative types, was introduced into the Tanzimat Era Turkish Literature first through translation and then domestic novels were written by means of imitation. The genre of novel assumed the function of an instrument for the introduction of the modern world, or the Western culture, to the Turkish society. Learning about the Western values and lifestyle superficially from novels resulted in the talks about the degeneration of all aspects of the society, especially in the way of clothing. It is also possible to detect in many novels that then a clash of mentalities was experienced when the traditional values were questioned in the face of the Western values. In the Servet-i Fünûn (literally, ‘Wealth of Knowledge) literature, besides the development of the genre of novel in the modern sense, it can be observed that the Western culture was being introduced consciously and thoroughly by the authors. In the novels of that period, now the characters of the novels had begun to live just as a Westerner, and they had alienated from the traditional and national values. In addition to those, it can be seen that the Western institutions of art, especially the Western literature, were praised in the novels of that period. In terms of displaying the Servet-i Fünûn literary understanding, the novel Mai ve Siyah (The Blue and the Black) by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil has a distinguished place in the Turkish literature. We will review that novel in a comparative way based on its similarity to the Martin Eden by Jack London in terms of its setup and content.Literary works based on long narratives are mostly fictionalised upon one or more than one elements of conflict. Thus, it is possible to see many realities in the superficial and deep structures of the text. Due to the human nature, people mostly experience a conflict of “instrumental values” and “high values” on their way to the goal. Based on these facts, the present study aims to address the heroes of the novels ‘Blue and Black’ and ‘Martin Eden’ together with their social environments, and to compare the similar and different personality traits of the types. Thus, the common themes that can be defined as a defeat against or an escape from the “problem of existence”, which are the most prominent subject in both novels, in other words, how the “blue dreams” symbolizing the joy of living give way to the “black despair”, will be analysed. During this evaluation, no comparison concerning which novel is superior in artistic terms will be made.